Kate Chopin The Awakening Essay

It has been suggested throughout the years whether Kate Chopin, writer of the fictional novel The Awakening, sympathizes with Edna Pontellier (the main character of the novel). However, evidence proves that Chopin does sympathize with Edna, even though she does not pity her. Throughout the 34 chapter book, Chopin repeatedly shows sympathy for her by allowing her to get away with many things. Nonetheless, she does show her indifference for Edna by throwing many complications in her way.

“The Awakening” By Kate Chopin is the story of a woman learning to follow herself. Kate Chopin creates a character named Edna who is coming to herself about who she truly is. In the story Edna, the woman, moves everything out of her path, in a very rebellious fashion, in order to grow as an individual. Chapter 19 of “The Awakening” is the midway point of the story. This chapter is Edna’s breaking point, where she comes to the realization that she does not need to follow the ways of society.

Kate Chopin's depiction of “The Awakening” is realistic as she develops Edna Pontellier’s character from a socially and morally respectable individual to an individual that turns her back on everything closest to her as she births her new self-being. Edna Pontellier struggles between her subconscious and conscious thoughts as unusual feelings stir unfounded emotions and senses. Some of Chopin’s characters lend themselves in Edna’s “awakening”. Through examination of Leonce Pontellier, Robert Lebrun, Madame Moiselle Reisz, Adele Ratignolle, and Alcee Arobin the life of Edna Pontellier turns into her ultimate death. The relationship she has with each one of these characters influences and initiates a lost feeling

In Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, Edna Pontellier and Adele Ratignolle have opposing viewpoints and personalities. Moreover, Edna is independent, strong-willed, and does not answer to her husband. In contrast, Mademoiselle Ratignolle is the ideal woman because she gives her whole self to her husband and children. Although Adele is the optimal woman, Adele is living a farce. In reality, Adele is intelligent and has the ability to think for herself. Despite Adele’s acumen, Adele plays the character of a subservient woman, due to the fact that an obedient woman was perceived as perfect in the late 19th century. Edna differs from Adele in that Edna does not hide who she really is; Edna voices her opinions and does what she wants. The two characters, Adele and Edna, are foils because Adele plays the game of a submissive wife while Edna is her true self.

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening recounts Edna Pontellier’s journey to self-discovery and independence, in a society where women are supposed to be proper and dependent. In chapter VI of The Awakening, Kate Chopin uses imagery of light and the ocean to describe her awakening and foreshadow the end of Edna’s journey to independence, and ultimately, her death.

In Kate Chopin’s novel, “The Awakening,” it takes the reader back to the 19th century when society had a defined meaning of what it was meant to be a woman. During the time that Chopin published her book in 1899 women were expected to stay home and take care of their husbands and children. By this means, society had implied that women were only allowed to act certain ways and do certain things; otherwise, they were thought to be senile. In the “The Awakening,” Edna Pontellier undergoes a dramatic change of self-realization, denying her role as a mother and wife. Edna awakens to discover her own identity seeing the world around her in a new perspective forgetting the roles that have been determine by society and ignoring the consequences to

During the late nineteenth century, a woman's place in society was restricted into submitting to her husband and taking care of her children. Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening, embodies the hardships, frustrations and the accomplishments of the main character’s life (Edna Pontellier) while simultaneously attempting to deal with society’s demands and over time overcoming them. While consistently defying the stereotype of a "mother-woman", Edna battles with the pressures that are imposed upon her, the same ones that command her to be a subdued and devoted housewife. Although Edna's suicide is a dreadful ending of her ongoing battles against an oppressive culture, The Awakening (unlike many other novels from the era) supports and encourages feminism

For centuries literature has identified and associated women with certain images and symbols. The critical lens of feminism works to identify these symbols and further argues that gender and time period dictate the manner in which one behaves. Themes of feminism are evident throughout The Awakening by Kate Chopin. Chopin uses contrasting characters such as Edna Pontellier and Adele Ratignolle to further embody the differing aspects of feminism. Adele Ratignolle represents the ideal woman of the time period, a mindless housewife working to serve her family, whereas Edna signifies an independent and daring woman who does not conform to society’s beliefs. These two women’s differing characteristics and personalities allow Chopin to further

The Awakening by Kate Chopin proves to be a novel capable of hosting many ideas as to its origin and why Edna Pontellier had the characteristics that made up the storyline of the novel. Her awakening could be perceived as the equivalent of her liberation. She so desperately felt the need for this awakening but in the midst of it, got lost in herself, which resulted in the loss of her life as a whole. Her actions are a product of consistent unrequited love from her childhood and the reluctance to conform to society’s standards for women in that time period.

Throughout history, women have been oppressed, whether it be their role as a person or the unrealistic expectation society sets. In the novel, The Awakening, Kate Chopin uses symbols and imagery to enhancing the state of being a woman fighting for freedom within herself in the late nineteenth century. Edna Pontellier faces restrictions and expectations purely based on gender. The societal structure in the late nineteenth century demanded women be fit as mothers and wives. However, Edna did not want to be limited to such titles, instead she had ambitions: artistic, financial, and sexual freedom.

Kate Chopin must have anticipated the extreme response when she decided to publish “The Awakening” in 1899. The title alone foreshadows a character or group of people undergoing a change that would extend their knowledge of something. “The Awakening” is a novella about a woman named Edna Pontellier, who is married with children. When she goes on a vacation to a resort with her family, she sparks an affair with one of the men that manage the resort. This act alone is already seen as inconceivable during the late 19th century, but Chopin decides that her story does not end there. Later in the story the man leaves her unexpectedly, sparking her sexual awakening and she starts to live her life rebellious to society’s standards. Since society

The Awakening novel written by Kate Chopin is about a women’s search for her true identity. The story begins with Edna Pontellier living in Louisiana within the upper-class society. Edna is a mother of two and is married to her husband Léonce. Throughout the story, Edna becomes more aware of her needs to escape her orthodox life as a housewife. She finds herself falling for another man, Robert Lebrun.

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening explores the effects societal conventions had on women by narrating a tale of how a woman’s pursuit of independence, her sexual identity, and self-expression leads to her solitude and eventual death. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, women weren’t expected to be anything else besides a pious wife and mother. They endured male dominance, a lack of independence, and the nonexistence of their sexual freedom. Due to this sad reality, Chopin decided to write a book that confronted these ideas by portraying an unromantic marriage with a woman who challenges the expectations of females during that time. During the beginning of the novel, Edna lived passively within the cult of domesticity. She did what she was expected to do; however, the more she questioned her life, the more she realized her own desires and identity. “At a very

The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, tells the story of Edna Pontellier. Edna is a married “housewife” who is on vacation with her husband and her two kids. When we first started reading the story, Edna seems as any other person from that time period. She seems like a mother that is busy with life and her own emotions as well as caring for her family.

Kate is very explicit in this story. "When he touched her breasts they gave themselves up in quivering ecstasy, inviting his lips. Her mouth was a fountain of delight. And when he possessed her, they seemed to swoon together at the very borderland of life's mystery." (Chopin, 122) Kate was strongly criticized by society when she presented explicit material. Kate was criticized by "The Storm", but it was "The Awakening" Kate's most criticized story. After she published it, it became impossible for Chopin to publish her later work. Chopin was censored because of her explicitness in her writing and also because at that time women were supposed to have only one sexual partner. At that time Society did not believe in feminism. Her novel was out of print for several decades, because society questioned Chopin's moral values in her writing. But all of Chopin's writings are now available.